COVID-19 crisis management in the healthcare sectors in Austria and Finland : country-comparison, best practice, and learnings for crisis preparedness

Abstract

In the European Union, both Finland and Austria were successful in fighting the pandemic, showing below-average EU-mortality (Our world in data 2023). This Master’s thesis examines Finnish and Austrian COVID-19 policies from a new crisis-management perspective during the high-risk pre-vaccination phase (2020-2021). A mixed methods approach is applied to analyse the efficiency of the healthcare policies for protecting the population. It combines a quantitative statistical correlation analysis of selected COVID-19 risk dimensions, like population density, gender and age on country and district level with qualitative input from leading Finnish and Austrian healthcare professionals and policy consultants. The semi- structured interviews cover country- and EU-policy levels along with best practice and lessons learned. The mixed methods approach considers country-specific conditions, like a substantially higher population density in Austria, and includes expert advice from different professional functions.

The findings are assessed against the new Green-Crisis-Management Framework developed by the author. The evaluation determines Finland’s and Austria’s pandemic preparedness. The model considers state-of-.the-art crisis-management standards developed by PAHO and WHO (2022), the five-phases-model by James and Wooten (2022) and the pandemic waste management priorities by Singh et al. (2022). The innovative Green-Crisis-Management Framework highlights new preventive and curative action recommendations for future emergencies.

The Master’s thesis presents an innovative comparative crisis-management assessment of the COVID-19 preparedness in Finland and Austria. Its newly developed Green-Crisis- Management Framework emphasises additional focus areas, like sustainability, medical responsibilities in policy-consultancy, legal requirements, and the need for adjusted preparedness plans. The recommendations may inform existing standards and frameworks, policies, and institutional decision-making. Moreover, this research may contribute to raising the preparedness level for future emergencies.